In real estate it is often said location is everything. In fact some claim Mc Donald's may be more a real estate empire than a fast food fortune. After all in many cases that Mickey D's is located on some prime property. Still, in general why is the golden arches known more for burgers than buildings? No doubt it has a lot to do with marketing.

Marketing is big business. Especially in western countries, such as America a business is nothing without a brand. In the east, especially in China, things can be a totally different ballgame. In fact, many expats may be challenged by how different the marketing game is here. It isn't to say marketing isn't happening. Of course it is. The question is how, when and where.

A site called chairmainmigo.com was founded by Miguel Roberg, an American expat who according to the bio listed on his site, has been "working here [China] for over 5 years now." His site actually does a fairly decent job of documenting some of the major marketing issues faced in China. A top problem is the tactics are totally different. Chinese consumers simply consume content for different reasons and in different ways.

China Marketing

Expats who are going to try to launch a brand in China, or even re-brand a brand in China are going to need to play catch up in terms of understanding how local buyers buy and why. The marketing process is complete with certain rhetoric being repeated often mindlessly and endlessly until, bingo, one day everyone everywhere can't forget it. The Chinese government is actually a master marketer. In fact, any expat wanting to understand Chinese marketing should actually take time to read up on the tactics used by the powers in charge.Why?

Simply put, there has been an amazing conveyance of standardized information conveyed to an incredibly large crowd in China. Think about it, few countries face marketing challenges that amount to communicating a message to over one billion humans. Yet, that is exactly what a marketer must do in China. Another case to be studied by marketers is Tencent and their product WeChat. Outside of the Chinese government, perhaps one of the next best marketers in China is Tencent under the guise of WeChat. As JIN reported recently as per the user stats released via China-Channel, WeChat users have neared the 900 million mark in recent times! It is simply mind-boggling to imagine the type of data storage infrastructure necessary to store and maintain nearly 1 billion users related information. Not to mention these users are not simply sending text, but multimedia content including pictures and videos.

For marketers to understand how marketing works in China, let's briefly examine how the Chinese government and WeChat works. The government definitely has a huge advantage, namely the law is on their side. It could be said, understanding, or being aware of the government's messaging and programs is a legal requirement. For example, if a company wants to be incorporated in China, they must understand the legal procedure for doing so. Expats will probably be shocked that a lot of such information is primarily being disseminated person to person and not online. That is, entrepreneurs actually need to visit in person a government building and talk to a live person in order to obtain specific information necessary to incorporate a business. In such a scenario, the Chinese government, was and still is to a large extent relying on people, that is physical human-to-human communication to market their message.

Tencent via WeChat at first glance may seem to have taken a totally different road. In reality though, they didn't. Here's why, WeChat users grew generally speaking organically. There was no massive, all-encompassing, country-wide marketing effort that in short order caused everyone everywhere to download WeChat and start using it. Instead, in many cases, it was the individual user that carried the message to the next consumer. In fact, it could be said that WeChat users promoted the product themselves! That's right, unpaid, uncompensated marketing labor entirely free for WeChat. A marketers dream come true.

Traditional Marketing

Here's the point, traditional marketing means for information dissemination definitely exist in China. This includes the most obvious one of online advertising. Businesses can pay the top search engine provider Baidu to ensure their company is found when key words are searched. This is nothing new and models itself exactly after the internet pioneer Google. As with its overseas counterpart, Baidu advertising is not cheap. Big companies spend big money to advertise via Baidu. The issue is, small and medium size companies with limited budgets can only buy so much Baidu advertising before it becomes cost-prohibitive.

Other mainstream marketing mediums exist. For example, perhaps nowhere could more consumer "eyes" see a message than via public transportation advertising. Sure, millions, even hundreds of millions of people may become aware of a particular product or service in a very short interval via subway or public bus advertising. However, that advertising bill is not going to be small. In fact, it may just turn the lights off before sales are ever even realized. Next comes the time-tested methods of television, radio and billboards. Yet again, all options in China. Marketers are not left without options. In fact, most marketing options available overseas are available in China.

Chinese Consumers

The point lies in how Chinese consumers differ from those abroad. For the sake of discussion, two differences will herein be proposed. Each is based on the success of two marketing juggernauts in China, the government and Tencent. The first difference is Chinese consumers respond to requirements not suggestions. The government requires consumers to be in the know, or else face some legal consequence. A huge motivator for sure. This means, no matter how challenging or inconvenient the obtainment of information may be, it must be obtained. In fact, Chinese consumers are incredibly resourceful and resilient when it comes to obtaining necessary information. A second difference is Chinese consumers rely on and trust highly individuals, most especially, those they know well. This is where the ever dominate concept of "relationships" or "guanxi" (关系 guānxi) yet again comes into play. Notice where the connection exists between these two consumer characteristics and both marketing success stories? It lies in a powerful, but basic Chinese character that is also one of the earliest to be learned by natives: 人 (rén), meaning: person.

The government relies on people, actual living, breathing humans stationed at countless government offices through the country to disseminate information. So too, WeChat relied on living breathing people to pass on the word, slowly but surely, one by one inviting their friends, family and colleagues to add them on WeChat. In fact expats who were in China pre-WeChat can attest to the slow, steady and absolutely undeniable WeChat takeover. To the point, that as our "cashless" cover article highlighted, forget about chatting and communication, if one wants to simply survive in China financially, such as buy daily necessities they must have WeChat!

Conclusion

Expats need to seriously consider these factors when devising a marketing plan. No amount of money is sufficient to market to over one billion China residents. Especially when many of such residents live in rural areas where mass marketing may be virtually useless. Instead, do not, in any way overlook or underestimate the power of each and every individual consumer and their somewhat incomprehensible power of persuasion over their close associates. Look to market to everyone via someone. Win the vote of the personal consumer and they will market that message for you. As they have been trained by the marketing strategies of the government, namely to motivate the end-user to obtain information that is necessary no matter what, so too businesses must make their information, product, service or message become "necessary" in the minds of the individual. As they do, that person will be far more effective in transmitting the message to the next person than any ad could ever hope to.